Russians seize Greenpeace ship after Arctic oil rig protest

Russian officials have detained a Greenpeace ship and threatened to bring criminal charges after activists scaled Russia's first Arctic offshore oil platform.

Greenpeace said armed coastguards had forcibly boarded and seized the Arctic Sunrise on Thursday, a day after two activists were plucked from the side of the Prirazlomnaya rig in the Pechora Sea, owned by the state-controlled energy giant Gazprom, and arrested.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) said the Amsterdam-registered ship was being towed to Murmansk, but might not arrive until Monday. It said there were 27 people on board, including four Russian citizens.

The regional unit of Russia's Investigative Committee said it was considering bringing charges of piracy, which can carry a term of up to 15 years' jail.

The FSB denied the environmental campaign group's assertion that the ship had been in international waters when it was seized.

Greenpeace, which aimed to draw attention to the threat to the fragile Arctic ecosystem from expanding oil drilling, said it had had no contact with the crew in many hours, and that law enforcement officers had damaged the ship's communications equipment.